It's so cool to watch all these young people first be swept away by the groove, the jazz, the complexity, the plain unadulterated class of the music and production and THEN.. suffer the cognitive dissonance.. 'hot damn! these lyrics need thought.. need understanding...history... study... soul.. '... I love it.. All credit though, great response.... love love love love
Did you know that this album is still used for stereo manufactures to test their new gear, speakers etc. It's considered to be the best engineered album with sound quality. Pretty big accomplishment 40 years later
Best thing about Steely Dan is how complicated the songs actually are but they make it sound so simple. All of these chords are all crazy jazz chords, but the way they harmonize and arrange the music makes it palatable for the average listener. Something in it for everyone lol
It's not actually that complicated, but because a lot of their chart's were written on piano, some of the reaches can be a bit trying on guitar. :-) Not unworkable, but difficult. Having said that, the old cliche of practice, is a wonderful thing.
@@christianwagenseil9621 I think that's why it's also important to learn the theory side of it. The bluesy side will come, but the theory part is essential.
Saw Steely Dan in Toronto a few years ago. Becker made this song go on forever, and it still wasn't long enough. Missed him the last couple of concerts.
They were masters of production, scouting talent, and timing. They KNEW that their talent was best with tastes of jazz, funk, soul, and rock. And they knew how to mix it right.
Thanks again for spreading the word to the new generation of musically-deprived millennials! And please don’t forget, the Donald Fagen catalog is really just an extension of Steely Dan’s jazzier side. MORPH THE CAT (recent), THE NIGHTFLY (classic) --seriously worth a listen and reaction from beginning to end dear!
Well I can assure you that there is no simplicity when it comes to Steely Dan. The melodic line, the chords, the engineering, production, musicianship etc are all top notch! Very difficult for a band of our era to come with such masterpieces Love and peace from Athens Greece.
Babylon Sisters is a devastatingly cool track, also from the Gaucho album. Steely Dan are one of the best groups for testing the quality of a sound system.
The amazing thing, for me anyway, is how many fantastic compositions Becker & Fagan penned and then assembled musicians to bring them to fruition. Writing a few great songs is a worthy accomplishment but these guys have dozens! Each album is a "must have" because IMO, you just can't go wrong. Casually cool and hipster-chic. I just turned my 76 year-old aunt (who has always been cool!), on to the AJA disc and she loved it!
One of my all time favorites, and they are about as u-cool as cool gets, and vice-versa. Very little ego to the recordings or songs, they wanted to produce The Best possible version of whatever song it was, and it's fantastic, everything that went into the albums was to serve the music, not their names or image or any of that. They wrote "improper", eclectic stuff with strange, dark lyrics and just played it to near-perfection, put it on record and shipped it. Testament to their era of studio musicians, too. Chuck Rainey is one of my inspirations.
They just make it sound simplistic. There's nothing simple about it. Some of their songs are pretty complex. This one is from 1980. You get another like from me.
The mixing on that album is incredable. On the slower songs you can hear the natural tape compression from recording on actual tape. Its just solo good. Especially if you listen on vinyl with a quality stylus.
The "Icing on the Cake"... So much magical music from the beginning then taking music "Production" to a new level (They were just better than most before them and no-one has really reached this level again)
"Hey Nineteen" ties in nicely with Donald Fagen's solo work two years later. Similar production sound. "I.G.Y" and "New Frontier" by Donald Fagen, highly recommended.
You should really react to title track from Aja. Not many studio songs have what is in effect a drum solo. Fabulous fusion of jazz and rock and Asian influences.
This song is about an older guy getting hit on by a young gorgeous woman. They have nothing in common but sex, drugs, and alcohol. Which is how the evening ends. But they have nothing in common other than that. No relationship can come from that
Great songwriters. The very best session musicians.and the Becker Fagen factor and the best sound engineers and producers of the time. I have made similar comments before but if. you strive for perfection sometimes you may almost achieve it.
I partly agree, but it's got to be something more than just "they used the best this and the best that..." A lot of other bands/artists used the same session musicians and engineers and producers, but none of them achieved the same level of artistry. I'm leaning more towards "Becker/Fagen factor.
An older man trying to make conversation with a pretty young thing, She has no clue who Aretha Franklin is, they don't know any of the same dances. But with the help of some tequila and good weed, they make the night a wonderful thing.
I love how the young poc love my generations music. Id like to show you some of that old gold we all loved so much. Pablo cruise. Chicago. Blood Sweat and Tears. Profile Harem.
STEELY DAN AIN'T NOTHING BUT GROOVE. THESE GUYS MIXED AND ENGENDERED THEIR ALBUMS LIKE NOBODY ELSE. ARETHA FRANKLIN WAS THE QUEEN OF SOUL. THE TEQUILA AND HIGH GRADE COLUMBIAN WAS REEFER.
Probably a Lyricon which is an electronic wind instrument.............best guess. Yes, just Googled it and Donald Fagen did blow on the Lyricon when "Hey 19" was recorded. A great groove depicting the disconnect between an older guy and a sweet young thing from Boston who did not even know who Aretha Franklin was. You can only imagine the conversation between the two....or the lack thereof. Enjoyed your comments.....great question!
As one who has NEVER chatted up younger women, nor indulged in the Cuervo Gold nor Fine Columbian, I wouldn't have a clue what they're singing about. Gonna leave before I break the bullshit detector.
'Sweet Things from Boston' is a reference to LSD-laced sugar cubes. 1967, when Donald Fagen was 19 years old, the year of the Summer of Love', hippies and 'trips'. Although Fagen was never a hippie, he was a 1960s version of a 'hipster' (in the original 1940s/1950s Bebop Culture and before sense, as in 'hepcat') and while studying Literature at Bard College, he experimented w/ psychedelics. Boston is home of Harvard university, where 1960 LSD Guru Timothy Leary had his own very first LSD trip. Boston and Harvard of the early 1960s became associated w/ then-legal psychedelic research.
@@xebio6 Or, 'so young and willing' to experiment w/ Psychedelics. Why 'Boston' is the subject matter is 'girls'? Sweet girls can be found anywhere. But in the mid to late 1960s, Boston was a reference to pioneering and still legal LSD research. Well, at leat that's the way I se it.
From the same Gaucho album, check out Glamour Profession, a sordid tale from the 1970's California cocaine culture, filled with unsavory characters, an infectious groove, and sensational horns, keyboards, and guitar work.
There's this weird 2 octive keyboard with a mouthpiece thing that Fagen blows into that makes sounds similar to Stevie Wonder doing his chromatic harmonica thing . I never mastered the chromatic harmonic but Stevie Wonder got it nailed down .Is this song about a pole dancer . IDK
We are so lucky to have had Steely Dan during the 70's......they have provided so much for the entire music industry to sample & enjoy
It's so cool to watch all these young people first be swept away by the groove, the jazz, the complexity, the plain unadulterated class of the music and production and THEN.. suffer the cognitive dissonance.. 'hot damn! these lyrics need thought.. need understanding...history... study... soul.. '... I love it.. All credit though, great response.... love love love love
Did you know that this album is still used for stereo manufactures to test their new gear, speakers etc. It's considered to be the best engineered album with sound quality. Pretty big accomplishment 40 years later
wow, as an old stereo salesman many moons ago, that's neat to hear hahaha
Very creative
Best thing about Steely Dan is how complicated the songs actually are but they make it sound so simple. All of these chords are all crazy jazz chords, but the way they harmonize and arrange the music makes it palatable for the average listener. Something in it for everyone lol
Get your hands on some of their charts. Not many triads to be found. Best. Leo.
It's not actually that complicated, but because a lot of their chart's were written on piano, some of the reaches can be a bit trying on guitar. :-) Not unworkable, but difficult. Having said that, the old cliche of practice, is a wonderful thing.
very true...you listen to it and think ok, this is very accessible, you are not aware at first how intricate it actually is
@@christianwagenseil9621 I think that's why it's also important to learn the theory side of it. The bluesy side will come, but the theory part is essential.
Probably one of the best mixed recordings I've ever heard. Eargasmic clarity.
Saw Steely Dan in Toronto a few years ago. Becker made this song go on forever, and it still wasn't long enough. Missed him the last couple of concerts.
Some Cuervo Gold & fine columbian. Party favors of the 70s/80s😂😁
I think Columbian meant weed, not cocaine
@@lipby what did I say that was incorrect? Who didn't have reefer back then?
I always thought the “fine Colombian”was coffee!😂😂😂...❤️Steely Dan!🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Grew up on this, Skynyrd and Prince. What eclectic music we had growing up. We were blessed with fantastic music.
I think FM (No Static at All) is my favorite song of theirs but so many are so good.
Steely Dan is addictive. You're gonna end up reacting to most if not all of Aja and Gaucho.
your appraisal is so spot on....
They were masters of production, scouting talent, and timing. They KNEW that their talent was best with tastes of jazz, funk, soul, and rock. And they knew how to mix it right.
I like how she references the 'bounce'. The yacht rock dudes always talk about the 'Doobie Bounce' (see: What A Fool Believes). The bounce is key.
Thanks again for spreading the word to the new generation of musically-deprived millennials! And please don’t forget, the Donald Fagen catalog is really just an extension of Steely Dan’s jazzier side. MORPH THE CAT (recent), THE NIGHTFLY (classic) --seriously worth a listen and reaction from beginning to end dear!
"Hey nineteen, that's Aretha Franklin (she don't remember the Queen of Soul)".
The lyric was originally going to mention Ella Fitzgerald but there was concern it would not be as recognizable as Franklin. Best. Leo.
19 weeks on the R&B charts. Such a grove. Nice one young lady!
What you're hearing is Donald Fagan playing a melodica.
You would think, as he has been known to play one. In this case, liner notes indicate a synthesizer solo. So I'm assuming a lyricon. Best. Leo.
@@michaelbastraw1493 yeah, sounds like a synth
Yes. A type of synth. Lyricon or Electronic Wind Instrument. Its played like a sax-powered by one's air, but a digital signal gets amplified.
Well I can assure you that there is no simplicity when it comes to Steely Dan.
The melodic line, the chords, the engineering, production, musicianship etc are all top notch!
Very difficult for a band of our era to come with such masterpieces
Love and peace from Athens Greece.
"Brooklyn Owes the Charmer Under Me" by Steely Dan.
best arrangments last century
Thanks. I love the backing vocals on the chorus.
Babylon Sisters is a devastatingly cool track, also from the Gaucho album.
Steely Dan are one of the best groups for testing the quality of a sound system.
It’s the gold standard to test a sound system.
"That right there" is probably a lyricon. A woodwind-like device that triggers a synthesizer and can be nuanced like a horn. Best. Leo.
The amazing thing, for me anyway, is how many fantastic compositions Becker & Fagan penned and then assembled musicians to bring them to fruition. Writing a few great songs is a worthy accomplishment but these guys have dozens! Each album is a "must have" because IMO, you just can't go wrong. Casually cool and hipster-chic. I just turned my 76 year-old aunt (who has always been cool!), on to the AJA disc and she loved it!
One of my all time favorites, and they are about as u-cool as cool gets, and vice-versa. Very little ego to the recordings or songs, they wanted to produce The Best possible version of whatever song it was, and it's fantastic, everything that went into the albums was to serve the music, not their names or image or any of that. They wrote "improper", eclectic stuff with strange, dark lyrics and just played it to near-perfection, put it on record and shipped it. Testament to their era of studio musicians, too. Chuck Rainey is one of my inspirations.
Definitely check out “Black Friday”, Kid Charlemagne”, “Aja”, and “West of Hollywood”.
They just make it sound simplistic. There's nothing simple about it. Some of their songs are pretty complex. This one is from 1980. You get another like from me.
The mixing on that album is incredable. On the slower songs you can hear the natural tape compression from recording on actual tape. Its just solo good. Especially if you listen on vinyl with a quality stylus.
Steely Dan is perhaps one of the best musical export from the US ever. Together with Miles Davis ofc!
The "Icing on the Cake"... So much magical music from the beginning then taking music "Production" to a new level (They were just better than most before them and no-one has really reached this level again)
Oh yeah my Steely man always been doing it great start listen to them back in the late 60s
That left hand is always gettin it with the air guitar😊 Cute❤
"My old school " - I think you would like this one next - a bit more of a rocker.
My favorite.
THANK YOU FROM BUFFALO, NEW YORK. LOVE STEELY.
You make a lot of funny faces honey!
"Hey Nineteen" ties in nicely with Donald Fagen's solo work two years later. Similar production sound. "I.G.Y" and "New Frontier" by Donald Fagen, highly recommended.
Man I gotta get into Fagen's solo work I'm so sure it's fantastic
@@shakarussanders9911 Some of the best music ever made -- I would even call it life-transforming. Right up there with the best SD stuff. Enjoy!
@UCokIGEnRlAA55L-jdTW7ikA As much as a SD fan as I am I know I definitely will enjoy it
@@shakarussanders9911 Love to hear what you think after you've heard it. We gotta some more reactions going to Donald Fagen's stuff.
Love me sum Steely Dan ! 💯👍😃🔥🔥🔥😍😎
You should really react to title track from Aja. Not many studio songs have what is in effect a drum solo. Fabulous fusion of jazz and rock and Asian influences.
9 months since you reacted to my request (Rush-Subdivisions). I still see it pop up here and there.
I hope you and yours are doing fine, Lady.
This song is about an older guy getting hit on by a young gorgeous woman. They have nothing in common but sex, drugs, and alcohol. Which is how the evening ends. But they have nothing in common other than that. No relationship can come from that
Still sounds good to me. The music and the concept.
Great songwriters. The very best session musicians.and the Becker Fagen factor and the best sound engineers and producers of the time. I have made similar comments before but if. you strive for perfection sometimes you may almost achieve it.
I partly agree, but it's got to be something more than just "they used the best this and the best that..." A lot of other bands/artists used the same session musicians and engineers and producers, but none of them achieved the same level of artistry. I'm leaning more towards "Becker/Fagen factor.
Such a careful analysis.
Check out Steely Dan - "Josie"
Glad it was in my era!!🔥🔥 👍
You go, girlfriend! So happy to find someone else who gets Steely Dan.
This song would be a good song for a sitcom. A sitcom in the 70’s or 80’s.😎
An older man trying to make conversation with a pretty young thing,
She has no clue who Aretha Franklin is, they don't know any of the same dances.
But with the help of some tequila and good weed, they make the night a wonderful thing.
Yep. That's it.
I always thought ‘the fine columbian’ was cocaine?
It ain't weed! This is the decade of COCAINE!
@@michaelreiner8103 Nope, it's weed.
I must say one thing is definitely top-notch musicians
Smooth funk. Try Traffic "John Barleycorn" album. Be sure to wear headphones and crank it up!
You will be glad you did!
I love how the young poc love my generations music. Id like to show you some of that old gold we all loved so much. Pablo cruise. Chicago. Blood Sweat and Tears. Profile Harem.
Chicago is my favorite band. I think she would love the instrumentals.
Procul Harem?
Edit, actually "Harum." My bad too.
Oops
@@shotgunblast28 Blood Sweat and Tears has horns and many mistaken for Chicago often. Spinning Wheel is a fun song.
@@shotgunblast28
th-cam.com/video/YbRR0WjMqEk/w-d-xo.html
That music is way more complex than it sounds. You get the best studio musicians in the world to make it sound easy.
Every young music aficionado needs to get on Black Cow" and "Deacon Blues" early.... StealyDans best work
Just requested this one Thanks!
Great stuff, isn't it?! I would recommend, "Kid Charlemagne" next. Excellent reaction!
You should watch some of their concert here on You Tube, Awsome !!!!!
Production value for SD is always top notch.
STEELY DAN AIN'T NOTHING BUT GROOVE. THESE GUYS MIXED AND ENGENDERED THEIR ALBUMS LIKE NOBODY ELSE. ARETHA FRANKLIN WAS THE QUEEN OF SOUL. THE TEQUILA AND HIGH GRADE COLUMBIAN WAS REEFER.
Next Steely...
Dr.Wu
Don't take me alive. (killer guitar on this one!)
You will like!
Great rabbit hole!!
saw them 3rd row didnt even finish the beer i bought before i sat down it was so mesmorizing!
groovin.....and then more groovin...ending in groovin...
L B - cuervo gold and fine colombian still going strong in 2020! or since the 70's anyway!
Also besides the Great music also convey the message because that's half of it
Probably a Lyricon which is an electronic wind instrument.............best guess. Yes, just Googled it and Donald Fagen did blow on the Lyricon when "Hey 19" was recorded. A great groove depicting the disconnect between an older guy and a sweet young thing from Boston who did not even know who Aretha Franklin was. You can only imagine the conversation between the two....or the lack thereof. Enjoyed your comments.....great question!
Steely Dan is actually a Jazz/rock band. By the way, Love that shirt you are wearing.
Right on girl ring that Bell
As one who has NEVER chatted up younger women, nor indulged in the Cuervo Gold nor Fine Columbian, I wouldn't have a clue what they're singing about. Gonna leave before I break the bullshit detector.
Check out some of Donald Fagan’s solo work the song called Maxine or Ruby baby
That is a Fender Rhodes electric piano and the synthesizer.
5:23 - Correct, that's a synthesiser simulating the sound of a harmonica.
Hey 25....no we cant dance together lol....love it Scribe!
'Sweet Things from Boston' is a reference to LSD-laced sugar cubes. 1967, when Donald Fagen was 19 years old, the year of the Summer of Love', hippies and 'trips'. Although Fagen was never a hippie, he was a 1960s version of a 'hipster' (in the original 1940s/1950s Bebop Culture and before sense, as in 'hepcat') and while studying Literature at Bard College, he experimented w/ psychedelics. Boston is home of Harvard university, where 1960 LSD Guru Timothy Leary had his own very first LSD trip. Boston and Harvard of the early 1960s became associated w/ then-legal psychedelic research.
You may be right, but "...so young and willing" makes me think the sweet things from Boston are girls. 19 is one of them.
@@xebio6 Or, 'so young and willing' to experiment w/ Psychedelics. Why 'Boston' is the subject matter is 'girls'? Sweet girls can be found anywhere. But in the mid to late 1960s, Boston was a reference to pioneering and still legal LSD research. Well, at leat that's the way I se it.
From the same Gaucho album, check out Glamour Profession, a sordid tale from the 1970's California cocaine culture, filled with unsavory characters, an infectious groove, and sensational horns, keyboards, and guitar work.
Try “ FM” and “ Do It Again”.
Awesome 🎵
That was a synthesizer that sounded like a harmonica.
Feelin it. Good reaction to Black Cow too, by the way
thats my top 1 favorite song
I call that Jazz
Good vibes
Studio perfection
Ring my bell LOL I’ve got that album single in my closet.
Legendary....period.The girl’s too young to know the classic artists.
Please PLEASE please!! React to After 7 "Ready or Not"
Great reaction. Maybe try their song Time Out of Mind. Thanks.
Guervo gold..fine colombian gold ( remember that stuff)?
Can u pleeease do peg..its sooo good 💙💙💙
The Cuervo Gold, The fine Columbian - make tonight a wonderful thing
You should check out Donald Fagan "New Frontier"
Only in the mass hall of fame.
Check out Daddy don't live in that New York city no Moe with lyrics
Did anyone suggest teelin the years or show biz. Kids
My wife hates Steely Dan. She says they're sleazy. She thinks this might be their sleaziest song.
Why did you marry her?
She probably just didn't get it
The Cuervo Gold the fine Columbian, make tonight a wonderful thing! Give it to me baby!!!
"The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian (weed) make tonight a wonderful thing"
Weed? Sure?
@@gabedeane414 Yep, Colombian weed.
@@gabedeane414 C'mon, are you kidding?
@@marymargaretmoore9034 These kids, huh Mary Margaret?!?
Sadly, I'm not a kid just oblivious to sublty
FM ✅🔝🔝
Your gold teeeeeeeeeth
I can't find any reaction videos on TH-cam of "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon. Please check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Donald Fagan is playing a melodica..
No, he's not. He's playing a lyricon. Best. Leo.
There's this weird 2 octive keyboard with a mouthpiece thing that Fagen blows into that makes sounds similar to Stevie Wonder doing his chromatic harmonica thing . I never mastered the chromatic harmonic but Stevie Wonder got it nailed down .Is this song about a pole dancer . IDK
Please play Steely Dan- "Josie"